A creative approach to environmental reporting with Google
Opportunity
Advancing sustainability with progressive strategies and digital performance
HH Global was tasked with re-envisioning the 2023 Google Environmental Report by refreshing its design and incorporating best practices for accessibility and interactivity, as well as providing strategy and guidance on sustainability content.
Google, a global leader in the technology sector, releases its environmental report annually. This report is Google’s single source of truth and key platform for showcasing its progress in environmental strategy, programs and performance. With escalating expectations from consumers, and emerging legal frameworks regarding sustainability reporting, Google recognized the importance of enhancing the content and structure of the 2023 report. The pressure was on to accelerate the impact of its sustainability story, while improving the digital user experience. To do this, it needed a partner with global creative and digital production proficiency, as well as specific expertise in sustainability reporting.
Transforming sustainability reporting through dynamic design
Undertaking a thorough peer benchmarking review – addressing sustainability content, user experience and design – HH Global identified best practices and provided clear data analysis of market trends and efficiencies. The result? A 104-page, user-friendly, interactive PDF experience, optimized for web viewing and accessibility. The final design included a dynamic navigation bar and editorial-style layouts, using key brand colors and icons to make dense, content-heavy pages more digestible for an engaging and efficient Google experience.
How we did it
Raising standards through more interactive and accessible reporting
Benchmarking + peer reviews
HH Global undertook two separate benchmarking processes – one to focus on sustainability content and strategy, and the other focused on design and functionality. Full reports and recommendations for both content and design were provided to Google.
Design + functionality
HH Global established a benchmark of best practices for aesthetics, functionality and content through a review and analysis of numerous peer reports, along with previous Google reports. Analysis focused on key components of user experience, including page orientation, interactivity, readability, navigation, special callouts and data visualization. This report informed creative recommendations and helped gain stakeholder buy-in for key design updates.
Sustainability + content
Working with our strategic partner, TBL, we reviewed numerous competitors to provide an objectively scored gap analysis against four selected themes: design + readability, data reporting, ESG standards and public targets. This analysis helped inform our content recommendations for sustainability and environmental reporting.
Form meets function
Building from the design benchmarking process, we redesigned the report with a focus on creating a visually pleasing, easy-to-use experience for a digital viewer, increasing brand presence throughout the report, and making dense content more digestible. We optimized the report for digital viewing with a landscape layout, tiers of interactive navigation and deep linking. Sections were color coded with light tones of the core brand colors, and leaf-shaped components were used as a nod to Google’s sustainability branding and efforts.
Highlights, targets + progress
HH Global developed a new visual system for the key environmental reporting framework, including targets + progress, highlights, case studies, Google search trends and AI + automation tools. Each leveraged different, but complementary, visual strategies, including color, iconography and container shape, to differentiate and help guide the reader experience. Once completed, key graphics and charts were optimized for additional marketing and website usage.
- A reinforced partnership
- Full environmental report: 104-page fully functional interactive PDF
- Marketing graphics: Key graphics and charts exported specifically for marketing and website usage.
- Abridged executive summary: 15-page condensed, fully- functional interactive PDF. Includes several key pages from the full report, paired with additional content overview pages. Features its own interactive navigation.
The Google Environmental Report was a perfect opportunity to expand on our existing partnership with Google, introducing a new team to the creativity, collaboration and dedication that HH Global has become known for across its clients. HH Global’s sustainability foundation paired with a broad knowledge of Google branding and practices helped make this a success and helps us continue to form new relationships across Google.
Danielle Silva-Ballard
Global Director, Client Engagement
We were thrilled to be selected to work on Google’s Environmental Report. It provided a unique opportunity to pair HH Global’s deep creative expertise with our sustainability acumen to help shape the vision of one of the largest and most influential companies in the world. The success of this highly visible project brought increased awareness of HH Global’s capabilities to the Google Team and further strengthened our longstanding partnership.
Sean Carr
Director of Sustainability, Americas
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